At a recent meeting of the Jackson County Legislature, the legislature gave approval for the issue of $52 million in bonds to purchase the westernmost section of the Rock Island railroad corridor. County officials expect purchase of the 17-mile section of the Rock Island corridor to move forward within the next few weeks or months and trail work to begin as early as this summer.

This segment will be a key connecting section of a world-class, 500+ mile statewide trail loop system, stretching from state line to state line, encompassing the existing Katy Trail and the new Rock Island Trail.

Which Missouri counties have the highest pedestrian fatalities rates? Are the highest fatality rates in the big cities, small cities, suburbs, or rural areas? Are most fatalities on high speed streets, low speed streets, or somewhere in between?

The answers--found in this map--may surprise you:

On the map, click on each county for a summary of county data, including total pedestrian fatalities, the percentage of traffic fatalities that are pedestrians, the percentage of pedestrian fatalities occuring on different types of streets, and othe information.

Tony and Jodi Devonshire of the Bike Stop Cafe & Outpost in St Charles are very concerned about the recent proposal to allow ATVs and utility vehicles on the Katy Trail. They attended Capitol Day this week to talk with their legislators about the issue.

How does this proposal affect their business? Tony and Jodi told us:

Bike Stop Cafe & Outpost is located on the Katy Trail in historic St. Charles, MO. We depend heavily on the Katy Trail for our revenue. In fact, the reason we are at this location is directly because of the Katy Trial. We, like others on the trail are a tourism destination. Every year, for the past 6 years, we've logged thousands of visitors from all over the world. In addition to out of state travelers, we get thousands of local trial users that start or end their Katy Trail ride at our location. Using the Katy Trail, we bring in local tourist from all over the tri-state area.

This morning the bill to allow ATVs and golf carts on the Katy Trail passed its second hurdle--a second committee vote in favor of the proposal. Only three representatives on the House Select Committee on Agriculture voted against the bill.

The next important step will be a vote on the floor of the House--and our next chance to stop this ill-conceived bill.

Please contact your legislators and House Agriculture Committee members now (again!) and ask them to oppose HB 2047

After thirteen meetings during the last 9 months, we are pleased to present our Final Report and Recommendations, titled "A Vision Zero Policy for Columbia." As you will read, "Vision Zero" is a philosophy of transportation system design and operations that asserts:

3. Transportation systems should be designed so that user errors are not fatal.

When these three statements comprise the foundation of the transportation planning process, there are fewer traffic crashes, and fewer deaths and serious injuries of pedestrians, motorists, and all other types of road users. The success of Vision Zero to save lives has been demonstrated in cities across the United States and throughout the world.

Vision Zero is a relatively new global movement to eradicate deaths related to roads and traffic. With U.S. traffic fatalities well over 30,000 annually and annual injuries numbering in the millions, crashes rank among the top forms of premature death and injury nationally and statewide. It is time to bring best practices to Missouri to greatly reduce--and work to completely eliminate--these fatalities and injuries.

What is Vision Zero and how does it differ from previous road safety campaigns, which have been only partially successful?

UPDATE 6 APRIL 2016: The hearing in the House Select Committee on Agriculture is set for 8AM on April 7th, 2016. We understand that an amendment will be offered at that time to increase the allowed size of the "utility vehicle" engines to 700ccs. Please continue to contact your own legislators about this issue.

Last week the bill to allow ATVs and golf carts on the Katy Trail passed its first hurdle--an 8-3 committee vote in favor of the proposal.

Now the bill moves to a second committee--and our second chance to stop this ill-conceived bill.

The committee amended the bill slightly, but the amendments do not solve the underlying problem of the bill--allowing motorized vehicles on the Katy Trail, which was never designed for such use--and to a degree the amendments even make the bill worse.

Recently the Federal Highway Administration announced the implementation of new national Safety Performance Measures for bicycling and walking that have been a long-time goal of the MIssouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation, national bicycle and pedestrian advocacy groups, and local advocacy groups.

The Safety Performance Measures are a big step towards improving safety for people who walk and bicycle across American and reducing injuries and fatalities. According to a FHWA announcement of the new measures:

Last week, representatives from the Missouri Bicycle & Pedestrian Federation and other bicycle, pedestrian, and trails advocacy groups in Missouri attended the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC. During the Summit, we met with every Missouri Congressional office.

A big part of our ask was this: Will you co-sponsor the PHIT Act?

We got a good response from several of our members of Congress. This is a proposal that is bipartisan in nature, will help improve fitness and health nationwide, and will help people all across the country, whether they live in a city, a suburb, or a rural town.

Can you help us now by contacting your members of Congress and asking them to co-sponsor the PHIT act?

Vision Zero is a powerful and successful initiative that is gaining momentum across the U.S.

Vision Zero advocates across the world--and now across the U.S.--have developed the tools and techniques needed to actually eliminate traffic fatalities.

What is Vision Zero? How do you implement it in your community? The Vision Zero Network has provided a nine-point summary:

1) Political Commitment

Highest-ranking local officials —Mayor, City Council, City Manager — make official and public commitment toward a Vision Zero goal to achieve zero traffic fatalities and severe injuries among all road users (including people walking, biking, using transit, and driving) within a set timeframe. This should include passage of a local policy laying out goals, timeline, stakeholders, and a commitment to community engagement, transparency, and equitable outcomes.

Florissant's policy becomes the 28th Complete Streets Policy in Missouri. Over 2.7 million Missourians--nearly half the population of the state--lives in a city or county with a Complete Streets policy.

Complete Streets policies ensure that communities are designing, building, and maintaining streets that meet the needs of all people who live in the community: Those who walk, bicycle, drive, and use transit; the old and the young; the able and those with disabilities.

Find out more about Complete Streets and learn how your community can adopt or implement a Complete Streets policy on the Missouri Complete Streets Page.

Stephen Michael Murray, a long-time board member and past president of the Missouri Bicycle & Pedestrian Federation, founding board member and former president of Great Rivers Greenway District, founding board member of Forest Park Forever, passed away February 24th, 2016 of cancer.

Mike was an avid runner--50 mile Masters National Champion and founding member of the 6:20 Club--and bike racer--three-time Masters National Road Race Champion, Regional Director for the United States Cycling Federation, and Chairman of the USA Olympic Cycling Team.

I first met Mike when he was on MoBikeFed's board in 2002, when the organization was re-constituted after a hiatus. He corresponded with me often over the years about bicycle-advocacy related matters and received our Distinguished Service Award as "Dean of Missouri Bicycle Advocacy" in 2011.

A celebration of Mike's life will be held Feb 28th and his funeral will be Feb 29th, 2016--details below.